


Mucking Up

by Matrya



Series: The Disrepute of Nat and Jim [5]
Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: F/M, Post-Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life, Rory Gilmore/Jess Mariano (one sided), a year in the life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 07:18:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10531593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Matrya/pseuds/Matrya
Summary: Lorelai, Jess, and a little something to talk about. December 2017.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a strong post- _Seasons_ installment but definitely has spoilers for seasons. Like, The Spoiler, Last-Four-Words spoiler!

"Hey, let me take the baby."

"No."

"Jess, I'm Grandma."

"He's sleeping."

"I won't wake him up, I just want baby snuggles."

"He was up all night, Lorelai. He's finally sleeping. _Rory_ is finally sleeping, and if he makes the slightest cry, she'll be out here. "

"But Jess—"

"She has a boob-sense."

"But I have to go to work soon. How am I supposed to get baby snuggles there. Michel's kids don't snuggle. They might garrotte me, but no snuggles."

"We'll come for lunch."

"No, let Rory sleep!"

"Shhh."

With the deepest of sighs, Lorelai looks seriously at her grandson. Jess has yet to even open his eyes, one forearm blocking them from the light while the other secures the baby against his chest. She sucks in a breath. "His eyes are turning brown."

"They're getting there."

It sits there, Lorelai not willing to say what she wants and Jess refusing to rise to the bait. They both refuse to admit how similar they are, even after so many years.

"You're not bad, y'know, at this parenting thing."

Jess shakes his head, slightly. "I'm not. Rory needs to write, I'm between projects."

"You're living together."

"Yes, our three bedroom, baby-proofed den of sin."

"You went to London with her. You went with her to tell Logan!"

"No, I had business to take care of and she stole my miles and then tried to chicken out of telling Logan."

Lorelai shrugs, helplessly. "Well, you know. She's a Lorelai." The silence settles for a minute before she throws up her hands. "He loves you."

Jess starts to scoff, then freezes and settles from the movement. "Logan _hates_ me."

"I meant the tiniest of Gilmores, smartass."

"Well, I kept her from naming him Ficus, so he owes me."

"What the hell did I miss?"

Shaking his head again, Jess dismisses that, "Nothing. When the Fentanyl first hit her, she got a little loopy."

"Jess, you were there when he was born."

"So was Eduardo."

"He's a nurse, so yeah."

"I thought it might be hard for her to drive while crowning."

Lorelai blows out a grumbling breath. "Okay, but why Ficus?"

 "She still didn't have a boy name. She was just listing off names of people she knows. Uhm, she said Finn and then Colin—"

"Of course. Can't have one without the other."

He cracks a smile. "So she's said. And then she looked at me and said Jess."

"She was always very astute."

"And then the drugs hit and she realised she could put them all together—"

"Like Bennifer."

"And name him Ficus."

Lorelai makes a noise, not unlike a monkey trying not to laugh. "Oh my God. I can't believe you stopped her."

"Ficus Richard Gilmore has no ring to it."

"I was rooting for Gil Moore Gilmore, so Ficus has a lot of ring to it."

"Have you ever been serious a day in your life?"

"Staunchly against it, thank you very much." She sighed and sat on the coffee table. It wobbled precariously. "You're her Luke."

Jess finally moved his arm and opened his eyes to look at her. "What?"

"You're her Luke. You're gonna wait and be patient and take care of her, of them—"

"I'm not around because—"

"No." She shook her head, feeling unsure or their future but not of her words. "Luke didn't do that to get with me, he did that because that's what you do for the people you love. You do all this because it's what _you_ do for the people you love, just like you're still pulling Liz out of all her little self-created problems." She laces her fingers together, fidgeting. "And Rory loves you—"

"Lorelai—"

"No, I don't know _how_ she loves you." She shrugs and knocks her hands against his elbow, softly. "I don't know if she knows how she loves you. Just like I always loved Luke, in whatever way." She hesitates, but forges onward. "Just keep in mind _one thing_."

Jess stares at her, face as sceptical as ever. "Is it weird?"

She separated her hands just to gesture at herself. "Hello, Lorelai Gilmore. One thing, okay?" She pauses, but not long enough for him to reply. "The time that Luke and I spent getting there wasn't wasted. We don't regret that it took us so long to get there because we got there when we were ready. If we had gotten together right in the beginning, or even just a year or two before we did, we wouldn't have been ready."

"Why…" He throws his arm back over his eyes like he can hide or block it all out. "I'm not waiting to 'get there'. We're friends."

"A year ago, you were still in love with her. You're saying all that went away?"

"I'm saying…" He works his jaw, however briefly. "It's Christmas. Let's just leave well enough alone."

Lorelai stares almost until she thinks he might be asleep. "You had something else to say."

A master of many thing, Jess silently takes a deep breath. The only sign is the baby rising higher, then slowly descending as Jess blows it silently out. "You married Christopher before you and Luke figured it out and she is nothing if not her mother's daughter. I don't deserve that; I told her ten years ago that I don't deserve that and it's on me to not do that to myself."

"Whoa, whoa, ten years ago?" Lorelai furrows her brow. "You weren't even talking ten years ago, Jess. How could that have even come up and honestly, what don't you _deserve_?"

He clamps his mouth shut and Lorelai can see the panic around his mouth, even with the arm back over his eyes. "Jess?" After a moment, she wonders, "Why do I get the feeling that I'll never know what's going on with you two?"

He moves the arm up and opens his eyes as it rests across his forehead. "All I'm saying is I'm not going to try competing with Logan or anyone else."

"It's not much of a competition," Lorelai notes, knowing that there are things missing on her end. She knows that Rory has her own things, that Jess is one of them. Lorelai knows that, in a lot of ways, she made that reality for herself. These days, she kicks herself for it because Jess grew up a lot, and he did it faster than Lorelai ever did. Jess is about as old now as she was the day they met, and she knows that he has it more together than she did at that point.

"Especially when you don't compete," Jess counters, still, then covers his eyes again. "Have a good morning, Lorelai. I'll tell Rory you want them to come to the Inn for lunch."

Which means Lorelai officially backslid something with this conversation. She sighs and leans forward, kissing the baby on the head, and then kissing Jess on the forehead. "Sleep tight, boys."

"If only your grandma would let us," Jess stage-whispers to the infant on his chest.

Still, Lorelai stares at them long enough that Jess tells her to leave, and then she finally does. Things change and Lorelai has no idea where the changes happen with Rory and Jess, but she figures she might eventually find out if she leaves it alone long enough.

 

**Author's Note:**

>  **Memo:** I don't check comments or kudos, but feel free to yell at me on [tumblr](http://matrya.tumblr.com) or [check out](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Matrya) my other writing!


End file.
